Zapa Player
An IPTV player that adapts to the dropouts
Zapa Player doesn’t sell you channels: you bring the service you already have. What it does is keep it playing when the provider stutters, switches resolution, or gives you a single connection.
On the App Store now, for iPhone and iPad, with the full version free for 7 days.
On Android —phone, tablet and Android TV— still in closed testing.
Why it keeps cutting out
An IPTV panel doesn’t serve like a streaming service: it serves in bursts. It goes quiet for a few seconds every few minutes and comes back. Most players take that silence for the end of the channel, give up, and leave you with a frozen frame and a spinner on top.
Zapa Player was written expecting that from day one.
Rides out the gap — and reconnects when it has to
When the stream goes quiet, it doesn't give up: it waits and carries on. If the channel switches resolution mid-stream and the picture freezes, it asks for it again. And if the drop is real, it reconnects on its own, counting attempts so it never spins in a loop.
You see a flicker. On another player you'd see a frozen frame and a spinner.
Zapping by remote, not by menu
Up and down change channel in full screen, without going back to any list. OK opens the zap browser over the video, with groups and channels, and what's on right now in each one.
Closes one before opening the next
If your service only allows one connection — and nearly every cheap one does — changing channel without closing the previous stream is a guaranteed error. Zapa closes it first. It sounds obvious; almost nobody does it.
The guide your provider doesn't give you Full version
Most channels arrive with no schedule at all: the row shows a name and nothing else. Zapa completes the grid from open sources and stitches it to your catalogue by channel name.
And it does it on your own device. There's no server of ours in the middle, which is why this can't go down and can never turn into a fee for keeping it alive.
A live channel on the Chromecast, from your phone Full version
Send any channel to the Chromecast at home from your phone, and keep zapping from your hand while it plays on the big screen. Live channels included, which is what almost no app manages.
The video goes from your service to your phone and from your phone to the TV, over your own wi-fi. It passes through no server of ours, and carries enough buffer that a provider stumble never reaches the living room.
Everything else it does
Thirteen more things. The ones with a tag are paid for; the rest come as standard, with no expiry and no gate.
Know if it's your line or the provider
When a channel breaks up, a one-minute report says whether your connection holds that channel or whether the fault is upstream. No guessing.
Recording on the device Full version · Android only
Pick a programme from the guide, or just a day and a time, and it records on its own to the drive you choose — nothing has to stay on screen. It uses one connection of your service while it runs, and needs a drive plugged in.
Programme reminders Full version
“Tell me when it starts” — and the reminder still fires even if you rebooted the device in between.
Picture in Picture Full version
The player stays in a corner of the screen while you use another app or the browser, with previous, next and pause to hand.
Playing with the screen off Full version
For talk shows and radio-on-television, where pixels and battery are wasted.
Films and series done properly
Seasons and episodes, with a seek bar that responds even on panels that answer range requests badly.
Subtitles and audio tracks Android only
Original or dubbed, with or without subtitles, chosen over the video itself. Not on iPhone and iPad yet: you get whichever track comes selected.
Picks up where you left off
Recently watched, your favourites and the channel search, always a couple of presses away.
Several lists at once Full version
Switch from one to another without retyping anything, and without losing the favourites of either.
The same app on every device of yours
iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablet, and Android TV. The interface adapts to the remote or to your finger; it isn't the phone one stretched.
Search programmes, not just channels Full version
Type a title and it tells you which channel it's on and at what time, across the coming days.
Your list, your way Full version
Hide the categories you'll never watch and put the ones you will up front. With a big list that's the first thing you need.
Doesn't take a minute to start
A series asks for its episodes when you open it, not at launch. The list paints instantly, however big it is.
And what it doesn't carry
Half the category makes its money selling you while showing you your own list. There's none of that here — not out of virtue, but because there's nowhere to put it.
- Not one ad. None, anywhere, in any version.
- No analytics, no trackers. No measurement, no advertising identifiers, no third parties watching what you play.
- No sign-up, no account. It opens and works. You never give an email address.
- No servers of ours. Your credentials are encrypted against the device's own keystore and never leave it. There is nowhere to send them to.
What it costs
It downloads free and there's no account to open. Part of it is paid for, and it's worth knowing which part before you install it.
- Free, with no expiry date: your channels with the dropouts ridden out, what's on now, films and series, picking up where you left off, and the report that tells you whether your line or the provider is at fault.
- Full version: the complete guide, sending a live channel to a Chromecast, several lists at once, programme reminders, Picture in Picture, playing with the screen off, searching the whole guide, and hiding and reordering your categories. On Android, recording on the device as well.
- Bought inside the app, either a yearly fee or a one-off purchase that doesn't expire. On the App Store, the yearly fee comes with a 7-day free trial, and cancelling before it ends costs nothing. Each store shows the price in your currency, and the store handles the purchase from start to finish: there's no payment page and no user account here.
Zapa Player does not include channels. No lists, no subscriptions, no catalogue. It opens empty.
It works with the Xtream Codes service you already pay for: you enter the address, the username and the password, and that's it. If you don't have one, this app is of no use to you — and we'd rather say so here than afterwards.
Zapa Player is a playback tool. It does not include, host or distribute audiovisual content of any kind. What you see depends entirely on the service each person configures, and it is that person's responsibility that the service they use is legitimate.